Ottoman Tunisia
Ottoman Tunisia was a semi-autonomous territory of the Ottoman Empire. It existed from the 16th to the 19th century and was located roughly in present-day Tunisia.
The Ottoman presence in the Maghreb began with the conquest of Algiers in 1516 by the Ottoman Turkish corsair, Beylerbey Aruj Barbarossa. In 1534, the Ottoman Navy under the command of Kapudan Pasha Hayreddin Barbarossa, Aruj's younger brother, captured Tunis from the Hafsid dynasty. Less than a year later, in 1535, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V sent a multinational invasion force to wrest back control of Tunis, overwhelming the Ottoman garrison. Following the final Ottoman reconquest of Tunis from Spain in 1574, the Ottomans maintained control of Tunis for over three centuries. Their rule came to an end following the French conquest of Tunisia in 1881.
Tunis was initially ruled from the Ottoman Regency of Algiers; however, the Ottomans established a separate governor for Tunis, whose authority was backed by Janissaries under his command. As a result, Tunis began to function as a separate province with a considerable degree of autonomy. Although Algiers occasionally contested this, Tunis maintained its autonomous status. Like other distant Ottoman territories, the governing councils responsible for administering the province consisted mostly of Ottoman elites from other parts of the empire. State affairs were primarily conducted in Ottoman Turkish.
At the center of what was then known as the Barbary Coast, Barbary corsairs used North African ports like Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli as bases to target European shipping and, at the height of their power, to raid ports and towns along Europe's Mediterranean coast. During these raids, Barbary pirates frequently captured European sailors and civilians, who were either ransomed or sold into slavery. For centuries, Tunis was among the principal centers of the Barbary slave trade. Eventually, a prolonged decline in raids and the increasing naval power of European states, culminating in a series of punitive wars by the United States later joined by Sweden and the Kingdom of Sicily, brought an end to the raids and the slave trade.
By the end of the Ottoman period, Tunisia had experienced a considerable loss in its territory. The decay in Ottoman authority throughout the 18th and 19th centuries led to conflicts with rival provinces, especially Tripoli, and foreign encroachment on their territory. In the 19th century, Tunisian rulers observed the ongoing political and social reforms occurring throughout the Ottoman Empire. Inspired by the Turkish model, the Bey of Tunis began modernizing Tunisia's administration, infrastructure, and economy, though these modernization efforts were expensive and would lead to Tunisia amassing a considerable amount of foreign debt. In 1881, France used this as a pretext to establish a Protectorate, effectively taking control over the territory.
The legacy of the centuries-long period of Ottoman rule in Tunisia is evident in the presence of Tunisia's large Turkish community. Historically, children of Turkish fathers and native mothers were known as the Kouloughlis.
History
Mediterranean rivalries
In the 16th century, control of the western Mediterranean was contested between the Spaniards and the Turks, both confident due to recent triumphs and subsequent expansion. In 1492, Spain completed its centuries-long Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula, followed by the establishment of the first Spanish settlements in America. Spain then devised an African policy, establishing a series of presidios in port cities along the African coast. The Ottoman Turks achieved their long-term ambition of capturing Constantinople in 1453, then successfully expanded further into the Balkans, and later conquered Syria and Egypt.Turkish Barbary corsairs operated from bases in the Maghreb. Spain captured and occupied several ports in North Africa, including Mers-el-Kebir, Oran, and Tripoli and Bougie. Spain also established treaty relations with several other ports. These agreements included Algiers, which granted Spain occupation of the offshore island of Peñón de Argel. Spain also reached agreements with Tlemcen, a city about 60 km inland, and with Tunis, whose Spanish alliance lasted inconsistently for decades. Near Tunis, the port of Goletta was later occupied by Spanish forces, who built a large and strong presidio there. They also constructed an aqueduct to Tunis for use by the kasbah.
The Hafsid dynasty had ruled Tunisia since 1227. It experienced periods of prestige as the leading state of the Maghreb, as well as times of struggle. Over the centuries, extensive trade with European merchants persisted, leading to the establishment of state treaties. However, the Hafsids also harbored corsairs who raided merchant shipping. In the 15th century, the Hafsids employed a Christian force, primarily consisting of Catalans, as bodyguards. By the 16th century, Hafsid rule weakened, often confined to Tunis alone. The last three Hafsid sultans—al-Hasan, his son Ahmad, and his brother Muhammad—engaged in inconsistent treaties with Spain.
The cross-cultural Hafsid alliance with Spain was not uncommon, given the numerous Muslim-Christian treaties, notwithstanding recurrent hostilities. During the early 16th century, for example, France allied with the Ottomans against the Spanish Emperor Charles V. As an indirect result of Spain's African policy, some Muslim rulers encouraged Turkish forces to enter the region to counter the Spanish presence. The Hafsid rulers of Tunis viewed the Turks and their corsair allies as a greater threat and formed an alliance with the Spanish, as did the Saadians of Morocco. Nevertheless, many Maghrebi Muslims strongly preferred Islamic rule, and the Hafsid's decades-long Spanish alliance was generally unpopular and even anathema to some. On the other hand, the Saadi dynasty sultans of Morocco successfully played off Iberians against Turks, thus remaining both Muslim-ruled and independent of the Ottoman grasp.
File:Ottoman small animation.gif|thumb|left|The Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1683, the year of their second Siege of Vienna.
In this naval struggle, the Ottoman Empire supported many Barbary pirates who raided European commercial shipping in the Mediterranean. The corsairs later established Algiers as their principal base. The "architects of Ottoman rule in the Maghrib" were Oruç Reis and his younger brother Khayr al-Din. Both were known as Barbarossa. The Muslim brothers came from obscure origins in the Greek island of Medelli or Mytilene.
After gaining combat experience in the eastern Mediterranean, the two brothers arrived in Tunis as corsair leaders. By 1504, they had entered into a privateer agreement with the Hafsid sultan Mohammad b. al-Hasan. Under the agreement, the "prizes" were to be shared. The brothers operated from Goletta ; they ran similar operations from Djerba in the south, where Aruj served as governor. During these years in Spain, non-Christians, including Muslims, were required to leave, according to the Alhambra Decree. At times, Aruj used his ships to transport many Moorish Andalusians to North Africa, especially Tunisia, earning praise and attracting many Muslim recruits. Twice, Aruj joined the Hafsids in unsuccessful assaults on Bougie, held by Spain. Then the brothers established an independent base in Djidjelli, east of Bougie, which attracted Hafsid hostility.
In 1516, the brothers, accompanied by Turkish soldiers, ventured further west to Algiers, where they seized control from the shaykh of the Tha'aliba tribe, who had made a treaty with Spain. Through political machinations, which involved the elimination of the tribal chief and later 22 notables, control of Algiers fell into the hands of the Barbarossa brothers. The Turkish siblings were already allies of the Ottoman Empire. In 1518, during an assault led by Aruj against Tlemcen, which was then under the control of a Spanish ally since 1511, Aruj was killed by Muslim tribal forces and the Spanish.
Khayr al-Din assumed control of Algiers, but temporarily relocated eastward for several years. Upon his return to Algiers in 1529, he seized the offshore island Peñón de Argel from Spain, which controlled the city's port with its guns. By constructing a causeway connecting these islands, he developed an excellent harbor for the city. Khayr al-Din continued to orchestrate large-scale raids on Christian shipping and the coastal regions of Mediterranean Europe, amassing considerable wealth and taking numerous captives. He emerged victorious in several naval battles, earning widespread renown. In 1533, Khayr al-Din was summoned to Constantinople, where the Ottoman sultan appointed him Pasha and admiral of the Turkish navy. With this title, he gained command over many more ships and soldiers. In 1534, capitalizing on a revolt against the Hafsid ruler al-Hasan, Khayr al-Din launched a naval invasion and captured the city of Tunis from Spain's allies.
File:The Ottoman Army Marching On The City Of Tunis In 1569 Ce.jpg|left|thumb|The 1569 march on Tunis by Uluç Ali: 5,000 Janissaries, accompanied by Kabyle troops.
The following year, Emperor Charles V organized a fleet under Andrea Doria of Genoa, comprising mainly Italians, Germans, and Spaniards, which recaptured Tunis in 1535. Subsequently, the Hafsid sultan Mawlay Hasan was reinstated. However, Khayr al-Din managed to escape. Subsequently, as the supreme commander of Ottoman naval forces, Khayr al-Din was primarily engaged in affairs outside the Maghrib.
Establishment of Ottoman rule
A few decades passed until, in 1556, another Turkish corsair, Dragut, ruling in Tripoli, attacked Tunisia from the east, entering Kairouan in 1558. In 1569, Uluj Ali Pasha, a renegade corsair, advanced with Turkish forces from the west and seized the Spanish presidio of Goletta and the Hafsid capital, Tunis. After the key naval victory of the Christian armada at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, Don Juan de Austria retook Tunis for Spain in 1573, restoring the Hafsid's rule. However, in 1574, a large Ottoman expedition returned under the command of Sinan Pasha and captured Tunis permanently. The last ruler of the Hafsid dynasty was then sent by ship to the Ottoman sultan, imprisoned.In the absence of Turkish intervention in the western Mediterranean, the political landscape favored the Christian north. European powers, led by Spain, continued to strengthen their dominance. Meanwhile, the local Maghrebi states faced declining trade and internal divisions, leaving them vulnerable to potential reconquest from the north. The emergence of another powerful foreign entity, the well-armed Ottoman Turks, proved pivotal. Their intervention shifted the balance in the Maghreb, sustaining centuries of Muslim rule under reformed institutions influenced by the Turks. Additionally, the controversial tactic of corsairs raiding European shipping aligned with the Mediterranean strategy pursued by the Ottoman Porte in Constantinople.
"Turkey was frequently combated by native North African rulers and never gained any hold over Morocco. But the Turks were nonetheless a powerful ally for Barbary, diverting Christian energies into eastern Europe, threatening Mediterranean communications, and absorbing those forces which might otherwise have turned their attention to reconquest in Africa."
For the first time, the Ottomans ventured into the Maghreb, eventually establishing their governing authority, albeit indirectly, along most of the southern coast of the Mediterranean. Throughout the 16th and subsequent centuries, their empire held a prominent position as the foremost Muslim state globally, serving as Islam's primary focal point. The Ottoman Empire earned recognition as "the leader of all Islam for nearly half a millennium." The Turkish sultan assumed the role of the caliph.
The Spanish-Ottoman truce of 1581 eased the Mediterranean rivalry between these two global powers. Spain retained some of its Maghrebi presidios and ports, such as Melilla and Oran. Both the Spanish and Ottoman Empires had shifted their focus elsewhere. Despite claiming suzerainty over Tunisia for the next three centuries, the Ottomans' effective political control in the Maghreb was short-lived.